


Confrontations

by fruggin_bitch



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Baggage, Ghosts, How Do I Tag, Light Angst, Nostalgia, bobby's fucked up, lots of trauma, tumblr has ruined me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:53:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27467500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fruggin_bitch/pseuds/fruggin_bitch
Summary: Carrie noticing her father’s reaction to hearing Sunset Curve and looking into it. Carrie figures out that it was once her father's band and that the boys in his old band are somehow in Julie's new band. Carrie decides to confront Julie and reconnect with her long lost friend. Later presented with some unsuspected information, Carrie has a heart to heart with her father about his past.
Relationships: Alex & Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Carrie Wilson, Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Luke Patterson & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Carrie Wilson, Flynn & Carrie Wilson, Flynn & Julie Molina, Julie Molina & Carrie Wilson, Luke Patterson & Carrie Wilson, Reggie & Carrie Wilson
Comments: 13
Kudos: 103





	Confrontations

**Author's Note:**

> this was the first time I've written like this in years so pls don't hate me!  
> also yeah ik the title isn't great but its midnight so leave me alone

Whenever someone offhandedly mentions Sunset Curve Bobby freezes up a bit, not enough for people who don't know him to notice, but Carrie does. She doesn't know why the mentioning of a long-dead 90's rock band bothers him, but she cares about her father, so she never brings it up. She does, however, look into this band that she heard about and when she does, she sees a picture of her father with these three other boys. She sees that they all died one night and realizes how much it must hurt for her father to have his 3 best friends all die on the same night. She does notice that his name is listed as Bobby, but she brushes it off as merely a nickname.

She thinks nothing more of it until a few months go by and Julie and her hologram band have become a big thing, rivaling the popularity of Dirty Candy. She doesn't think much about the holograms until after Julie's garage party. She remembers something being off about the holograms and looks up the video. As she is watching she suddenly remembers her dad's old band. She pulls up the picture from the article and the video of Julie's band side by said and is shocked when she sees that Julie's hologram band is her dad's old bandmates. She has a bit of a freak-out but decides not to say anything until she's completely figured out what's going on there. 

She's watching the video again after she hears that Julie's playing the Orpheum, and her dad peers over her shoulder at the video. She looks up and sees a look of disbelief and hurt on his face as he sees the boys on his daughter’s screen. Carrie offhandedly mentions that they’re playing the Orpheum and almost instantly he’s talking into the phone ordering two tickets for the Orpheum that night.

They get there and as they watch she reaches over and squeezes her father’s hand, realizing how tough it must be for him to see his former bandmates after 25 years of them being dead, and them looking the exact same. She does realize, however, as she’s watching Julie’s performance, that she does miss her and that she shouldn’t be competing when they are both talented. She stands and claps for Julie and smiles softly when Julie notices her in the crowd. 

Her dad hasn’t been the same since the show at the Orpheum. He has been at his therapist a lot and has been spacing out a lot. Carrie knew he was trying to process seeing his dead bandmates up on stage with Julie. She didn’t blame him; it was pretty crazy. She knew she wanted to talk to him about it.

Carrie waits about a week before getting the nerve to go and talk to Julie but does make a point to not be as rude to her. It’s a hard habit to break, and comments will still slip out or a judgmental look will slide over her features, but she’s working on it. The girls in Dirty Candy notice a change in Carrie too and are proud of her. It’s the next Saturday when Carrie goes over to Julie’s house and knocks on the door. Julie’s father is surprised to see her but points her in the direction of the garage where Julie is practicing.

She notices the door is open and Julie is sitting on the couch talking to someone. Carrie gathers all her nerves and makes sure she has the Sunset Curve photo open on her phone and knocks on the garage door. She hears a “Come in!” from Julie and takes a deep breath before walking in to see Julie talking to seemingly nobody, but Carrie had already figured out that she wouldn’t be able to see the boys. She didn’t know how she knew, but it made sense, after all, they were only visible while they were playing with Julie. She didn’t know for sure if she would be able to see them if they were by themselves, but that was beside the point.

Julie looked to the other chair, seemingly where another band member is sitting, and notices Carrie in the doorway, almost immediately looking confused. She definitely wasn’t expecting to see Carrie there, out of anyone. Julie notices that Carrie doesn’t have the overconfident air she usually has and looks very nervous.

“Carrie, hi. What are you-” Julie starts while standing up.

“They’re ghosts, aren’t they? The boys in your band.” She couldn’t stop herself. She pulled up the picture on her phone and walked closer to Julie, pointing the photo of her father’s band in her direction.

“I knew I recognized them, I just didn’t know from where, they were in a band with my father-”

“Carrie, what are you talking about?’ Julie was trying to be inconspicuous, but she really wasn’t good at lying. Carrie knew this and pointed at the picture and then showed her a screencap from Julie’s YouTube video.

“They’re ghosts, I know it. How else would you be able to talk and sing with a dead band from the 90′s? I don’t know how it works, but-” she caught herself and realized how she sounded. She sounded crazy! Carrie took a step back and looked at Julie’s terrified face.

“You know what, never mind, this was a stupid idea. they’re probably just holograms I’ll show myself out.” She realized how unsure she sounded but she did not care, she had to get out of there.

“Carrie, wait-” Julie was too late. Carrie had already run out of the garage.

Julie made up her mind in that split second and raced after her. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I panicked and I didn’t know what to say. If you come back into the garage with me, we can talk about it if you want to.”

Carrie nodded, knowing that as soon as she was able to talk to Julie about the ghosts in her band, she would be able to at least chill-out. They talked for about half an hour, with the boys talking and Julie transferring the message. The boys mostly wanted to know how their old bandmate was doing, and if he was a good father because the Bobby they remembered loved kids, and they hoped he still had that love inside of him. The boys were conflicted about how to tell Carrie that her father had stolen their music but decided against it for the time being.

“Hey Jules, are y’all practicing or- Carrie? What are you-” Flynn walked in and stopped abruptly noticing Carrie. She looked at Julie with the biggest ‘WTF’ on her face and Julie stood up and quietly explained that Carrie had figured out that the boys were ghosts. 

Flynn was concerned but sat down and helped Julie explain how she was able to see them, and how they appeared when the band played together. The three girls and the ghost boys talked for a while before they realized how late it had gotten once Carrie’s dad called her, wondering where she was. Carrie explained and said she would be home soon.

Carrie thanked Julie and Flynn for being honest with her and told the boys she would look after her dad for them. She also made sure to tell Julie how much she enjoyed her performance and how her band was fairly good. She walked out of the garage and headed home, still feeling confused but ultimately being happy that she was able to talk to her old friends and made some new ghost ones, even if it was a bit tense.

Carrie remembered Julie had offhandedly said something about her dad and the band’s music, but she was apparently shushed by a member of the band before she could say much. It left her wondering, but she decided to ask about it later. She knew her dad had a hard time writing music, but she had always figured it was just because he had been in the business for too long and wasn’t young and fresh anymore. Whatever the reason, she decided not to talk to him about his band just yet instead resolving to wait until after she could talk to the boys again and figure out what it was Julie was going to say.

* * *

A few weeks had passed, and Carrie was thinking of new choreography for Dirty Candy’s newest song. She used her alone time in the studio to dance out her feelings and just relax. Carrie was in the middle of writing down steps for her group’s next practice session when she got a facetime request from Julie. She grabbed her phone and set it up, so it was facing her, but she didn’t have to hold it.

After talking about the band, all 3 the girls had realized that they had missed their friendship and decided to try and get closer. They had come so far in the last few weeks, and Carrie wasn’t surprised anymore when she got a text or call from Julie or Flynn. She had gotten closer to the guys too, communicating through paper and pencil.

“Hey, Carrie! The guys said that they wanted to talk to you after you’re done with dance, something about your dad.” Julie looked beside her at one of the boys but looked back once Carrie answered.

“Yeah, totally. I’ll be over in half an hour or so, want me to come straight back to the studio?”

“Just come straight back.”

The girls talked for a few more minutes before saying their goodbyes. Carrie pulled up the recording of their newest song again and danced through the choreography she had planned out so far, feeling proud of what she had created. She packed up her things and left the studio, catching a cab over to Julie’s.

When she opened the studio door, the band was practicing a new song, so Carrie just smiled and sat down. She enjoyed watching the band practice, as it was the only time, she could see them, aside from performances. Carrie waited, jamming out to the song and sharing smiles with each member, but especially Alex, who had become a good friend of hers.

The song ended and the band gave a bow, the boys disappeared, and Julie sad down next to Carrie, a big smile on her face.

“What did you think? We just finished putting all of the parts together.”

“I loved it! So, what did the boys want to talk to me about?”

Julie seemed nervous, she kept looking over at the drum set, where Carrie could guess Alex was still sitting. The pencil on the table next to them lifted, which would have scared her if she didn’t know that there was a ghost holding it.

_“It’s about your dad.”_

Carrie could tell it was Reggie by the handwriting, as she had gotten used to each of the boys writing out what they wanted to say to her.

“What about him? Did you have more questions or-” she cut herself off when the pencil started writing furiously again. This time it was Luke, she could already tell by the messy handwriting. Carrie looked at Julie as she stopped talking.

“Are you sure?” Julie had turned and was asking one of the boys with a worried look on her face, as though they were going to tell her something that was going to be hard to hear. She nodded as if accepting the boys’ answer before grabbing a notebook.

“This is Luke’s songwriting journal. A few weeks ago, the day of the dance, he was going to show me some old Sunset Curve songs that he had written, and well, it didn’t exactly go as planned.”

Carrie was confused, but her mind was going a mile a minute because she had a hunch about what they were saying. She looked at the notebook and saw one of her dad’s early songs in Luke’s handwriting. Her hunch was confirmed as the paper on the table was pushed towards her, making her look down at it.

_“Your dad’s music isn’t his. I wrote it. All of his early music was Sunset Curve songs that he stole without credit. I’m sorry you had to find out like this, but we thought you should know.”_

Carrie couldn’t speak. Her mouth opened but nothing came out. She didn’t realize she was crying until she felt something wet on her cheek. She knew something was up with her dad’s music, but processing that he had stolen from his dead bandmates was harder than she anticipated. Julie softly grabbed her hand as a reassurance that she was there for her. Her tears slowed as her face turned hard. She squeezed Julie’s hand and silently gestured to the notebook. Julie nodded and held it out to her. She was about to stand up before Julie spoke suddenly.

“Don’t be too hard on him. He was young and had just lost his three best friends on the same night. I- I know it was wrong, but- if you ask him, he may tell you why.”

Carrie nodded before standing up and walking out of the garage. She decided to walk home and while it was across the city, she needed time to think. Think about what to say to him and how to ask him why.

When she got home her father was sitting in the kitchen, talking on the phone with someone. Carrie came up behind him and whispered, “Come upstairs when you’re done,” into his ear, because however angry and confused she was, she knew how important phone calls usually were for her father.

Not 5 minutes later she had the Sunset Curve articles open on her laptop again and was looking through Luke’s notebook when she heard her father knock at her door. He poked his head in and grinned at her the way he always did after she came home.

“Hey, baby. How was school?” He sat in her desk chair across from her bed.

“Great, can I talk to you about something?”

“Of course, what-” He cut himself off, recognizing the notebook his daughter was holding. How could he not have recognized it, his bandmate, his _brother_ had written in it every day all those years ago.

“I know about Sunset Curve. I know they were your band and the three of them died and- and I’m sure you had a reason but you took their music,” She held up Luke’s songbook, “Luke’s songs you took them and-”

She stopped herself and looked up at her father. He was staring at the songbook with tears in his eyes and guilt on his face. Carrie took his hand and her father looked up at her.

“I know- I know you were only 17 when they died. I’m sorry dad. I just wanted to know- why didn’t you give them credit?”

Her father looked up at her and took a deep breath to calm himself and launched into an explanation of what happened. He didn’t notice the pencils on her desk move, but Carrie did and send a small smile their way, knowing that the boys were there listening to their old friend.

He explained to her how much it hurt to have lost them and how depressed he was. He ended up playing one of Luke’s songs at a club one night and everything snowballed. Trevor had changed his name to keep the reporters away, and to hide the pain of losing his band. He didn’t want to take the credit but got roped into a deal with a producer. The man had signed Bobby with a misleading contract and suddenly had rights to all of *his* Luke’s songs. He argued with him for days but in the end, there was nothing he could do. He was a broken 18-year-old.

Trevor remembered how much Reggie’s parents had neglected him and scarred him by fighting constantly. He remembered how angry Alex’s parents were when he came out to them as gay, kicking him out with slurs and harsh words. He remembered the day Luke ran away from home after a fight with his mom made him realize that they wouldn’t support him in his music career, and how that broke him. He remembered the small, but the love-filled family that they had become.

Trevor remembered the night they died. He remembered coming out of the theater minutes before their gig began to find his missing bandmates, knowing that they were about to blow their chance to be legends. He remembered finding the three in the alley near a hotdog stand, barely breathing with ambulances and EMT’s around them. He remembered breaking down while holding onto his band, his brothers. He remembered the ride to the hospital and being told upon arrival that the boys had died during the ride over.

Trevor remembered the crushing feeling of loss that hung over him for the next year. Only leaving his house for their funerals and how much it hurt to see his best friends being lowered into the ground. He remembered how it felt to see the boys’ parents at the funerals and the anger he had toward them.

How dare Luke’s parents not support their son’s dream to the point where he couldn’t take living with them anymore. How dare Alex’s parents kick out their only son for something he had no control over, something that took him months of mustering up the courage to tell them. How dare Reggie’s parents fight so often that their son was traumatized and flinched every time he heard a loud noise or voice.

Trevor remembered how he came upon Luke’s notebook and read through his old friend’s songs, deciding to learn them to keep his memory alive and feel closer to him. He remembered playing outside of a club and being offered a spot in their next performance. He remembered taking it after a load of second thoughts, barely managing to convince himself that he should at least try. He remembered the lies that he told himself to hold him over until his contract was over.

He remembered the day his contract was over, the joy he felt that he could finally give his brother the credit he deserved. Trevor remembered his joy faltering and crumbling when he looked at his daughter, 10 years old, dancing and singing, telling her dad that she wanted to be a singer like him when she grew up. He could stand ruining himself, but the thought of ruining Carrie’s chance for the future she dreamed of crushing him. So, he kept the guilt to himself.

Carrie held her father’s hand as he talked about his past for what she guessed was the first time outside of a therapist’s office. She understood how much it must have hurt and how irrational grief can make someone. As he finished talking, she squeezed his hand and handed him a tissue.

“I’m sure that if they were here, they would forgive you.” She looked over her father’s shoulder at the pencil that was floating behind him. She gave the area a small grin before turning to her father again. She sat with him as he remembered his old friends. They sat together on Carrie’s bed and her father told her stories about the boys that he missed so dearly.

Trevor told her about her Uncle Alex, how caring and genuine he was. He told her how brave he was for coming out, even when he was scared that he wouldn’t be accepted. He told her how Alex loved each of them so much and gave the best hugs. Trevor told her how he always wore ‘that stupid fanny pack’ and his unexplainably soft hoodies. He told her about the night Alex came out to his parents, the night he showed up at the studio with tears streaming and a duffel bag in his hand. He reminded Carrie that he would always accept her.

Trevor told her about her Uncle Reggie, how sweet and funny he was. He told her how he was the youngest out of all of them, but you could never tell because Luke was so short. He told her how Reggie made each of them feel so loved because he didn’t get the same love from his parents. Trevor told her how he always had a flannel on that smelled like old spice and lemons, how he was the most loyal friend he had ever met. He told her about the day Reggie had walked into the studio with a hand-shaped mark on his face and blood coming from his nose. He reminded Carrie that he would always love her.

Trevor told her about her Uncle Luke, how smart and kind he was. He told her how protective he was over his friends and would do anything for them. He told her how Luke always wrote into his music little solos for each member of the band because he never wanted them to feel left out. Trevor told her how Luke fought with his mom but tried so hard to never raise his voice at his band. He told her how Luke barely wore sleeves but he was always warm. He told her about the night he ran away, showing up late to practice for the first time, with a backpack full of clothes and his guitar slung over his shoulder. He reminded Carrie that he would always support her.

Trevor spent the evening talking freely with his daughter for the first time in years, exchanging feelings and memories. Carrie fell asleep leaning up against her father and was truly content knowing that he was forgiven.

* * *

Hours after Carrie had fallen asleep and her father had carried her to her bed, Trevor was down in his kitchen lost in his memories, tears slowly rolling down his cheeks. He had been writing out a letter because he could in no way go down to Julie’s and talk to her about his dead(?) bandmates. He had decided to write out a letter explaining the best he could and that he in no way expected forgiveness, just understanding. He had gotten lost in remembering the night Julie and her band performed at the Orpheum and had left his finished letter on the table in front of him.

He was startled out of his haze by his pen suddenly moving on its own. Whoever or whatever had moved it hadn’t noticed Trevor looking at the pen because they turned the paper around and was moving the capped pen under the words as if reading the letter. The pen reached the end of the paper and Trevor, knowing that he had put a p.s. on the backside, reached out, and turned it over slowly. The pen dropped quickly as if the holder was caught doing something they weren't supposed to. 

"It's okay. Read it. _Please_." Trevor knew that all three of his boys, even if they weren't his anymore, were there with him, reading the truths that he had written on the sheet of paper in front of him. The paper was drawn towards the people he could not see but knew were standing there. Trevor gasped softly as the pen picked itself up and wrote on the paper. It was in Luke's every messy handwriting, with each boy writing their name at the bottom.

_we forgive you._

_~Luke, Alex, and Reggie_

**Author's Note:**

> please please let me know what you thought!!
> 
> kudos and comments are SO welcome!
> 
> for more content from me find me on Tumblr @fruggin-bitch


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